Subject-Verb Agreement

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Name of student
Teachers Name
Wong Shiu Ping
Subject
Form 2 English
Class
F2 ENG
Topic
Subject-Verb agreement
Lesson no
Date
22/2/2016
Day/Time
Monday
Sub-topic
Understanding Subject and Predicate is the key to good sentence writing. The subject of a
complete sentence is who or what the sentence is about, and the predicate tells about that
subject.
The dog ran.
The dog is the subject of the sentence, because the sentence is telling something about that
dog. And what is it telling? It says that the dog ran. So in this example the subject is dog and
the predicate is ran.
The dog ran after the cat.
Here we have more detail, but the subject is still dog. How can we know that the subject is
dog and not cat since the sentence seems to be about both animals?
To determine the subject of a sentence, first find the verb and then ask who? or what? In
this sentence, the verb is ran. If we ask, who ran? the answer is, the dog ran. This is how
we know that dog is the subject of the sentence.
What is the subject in the following sentence:
Yesterday after lunch the students were complaining about the short recess.
The sentence is telling about several different things: yesterday, lunch, students, and recess.
How can we know which of those is the subject of the sentence? We first find the verb: were
complaining. Next we ask, who were complaining? And immediately we recognize that the
students are the subject of the sentence. The predicate always includes the verb, and tells
something about the subject; in this example, we see that the students were complaining
about the short recess.
The "Understood You"
In some sentences the subject is not so easy to find. Here is an example of a sentence that
seems to have no subject:
Go sit down on that chair.
We see the verb is go sit, but who is doing that action? The only noun present is chair but
certainly the chair is not about to go sit!
In this sentence the speaker is giving a direct command to another person, and might have
said, You go sit down on that chair. The rule to remember for a sentence that is a command
is that if the subject is not named, we can assume that subject is you.
"There" is Not the Subject
Another example to watch for is a sentence that begins with there and has a form of the
verb to be. Even though the word there is at the beginning of the sentence, next to the
verb, it is not the subject. See if you can find the subject and predicate in this sentence:
There were three different desserts arranged on the table.
First find the verb: were arranged. Then ask, who or what were arranged? The answer is
three different desserts, which is the correct subject.
Simple Subject and Simple Predicate
The subject of a sentence includes the noun or pronoun along with all the words that modify,
or describe it. The simple subject is the noun or pronoun all by itself.
The light blue shirt with the colorful pattern was her favorite top.
In this sentence shirt is the simple subject, and all the descriptive words tell us more about
that shirt. The subject is shirt and all its modifiers (the light blue shirt with the colorful
pattern), but the simple subject is simply shirt.
The predicate of a sentence is based on the simple predicate, which is the verb. All the other
words in the predicate tell more about the subject, and some of the words can modify the
verb. In the example above, the word was is the verb, and therefore it is the simple
predicate.
Compound Subject and Compound Predicate

Sometimes a sentence has a compound subject, when there are two or more nouns in the
subject:
Bobby and his friends ran outside to play basketball.
The verb is ran and we ask, who ran? The answer is Bobby and his friends which
comprise the subject.
A compound predicate includes two or more verbs that relate to the subject:
The little girl picked up her doll and climbed into bed.
The verbs are picked up and climbed. We ask, who picked up? who climbed? The answer
is the same for both verbs: the little girl.
Writing Better Sentences
How can knowing about Subject and Predicate help you become a better writer? Take a look
at the following examples and see if you can find the subjects and predicates.
At the movies with friends and eating popcorn with lots of butter and salt.
The rapidly approaching train on the rickety tracks, shivering as it rounded the curve.
Both examples have action, and both are telling something about the nouns, but neither one
is an actual sentence because neither one has Subject and Predicate. Lets rewrite the
examples and create complete sentences:
1. While we were at the movies, my friends and I were eating popcorn with lots of butter and salt.
Now we can find the verb, were eating, and ask who? The answer is a compound subject,
my friends and I.
2. The rapidly approaching train swerved on the rickety tracks, shivering as it rounded the curve.
OR
The rapidly approaching train shivered as it rounded the curve on the rickety tracks.
Both rewrites of this example now include a verb, swerved or shivered, with train as the
same subject in each version.
Subject and Verb Agreement
One more important point to keep in mind is that the subject and predicate must agree in
number:
The man holding the boxes is next in line.
3
Even though the word boxes is plural, the verb is singular because the subject of the
sentence is the singular noun man. Remember that when deciding if the verb should be
singular or plural, only consider the subject of the sentence!

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B.Indah: No.

Wong Shiu Ping

Compound Subject and Compound Predicate

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